Singur water crisis: Mission Bhagiratha seeks Rs 31.23 crore for Sangareddy

Mission Bhagiratha has sought Rs 31.23 crore for alternative drinking water arrangements in Sangareddy district as Singur reservoir storage falls to 3.70 TMCft. The department has warned of supply disruptions from December and announced alternate-day supplies after Dasara

Sangareddy: With the Singur reservoir receiving barely 3 TMCft of water during the South-West Monsoon, the Mission Bhagiratha department has informed the State government that it would be unable to supply drinking water to 852 villages and eight municipalities in Sangareddy district from December onwards.

The department has submitted a proposal seeking funds for alternative arrangements as water storage in the Singur multipurpose project has fallen to 3.70 TMCft against its full storage capacity of 29.91 TMCft. With little hope of further inflows during the rainy season, officials are working on alternative arrangements.

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Seeking Rs 31.23 crore to ensure drinking water supply to 852 villages, Mission Bhagiratha officials said they planned to drill borewells in 302 habitations to provide drinking water until next June. Of the 852 villages, officials identified 451 where alternative arrangements would be required through borewells, water transportation and the laying of new pipelines.

The officials have also proposed hiring private borewells to supply drinking water across the district, for which they have sought Rs 1 crore. They have also sought Rs 5.70 crore to supply drinking water through tankers. Most of these tankers will be deployed in Narayankhed constituency, where alternative sources of drinking water are unavailable. The officials plan to spend Rs 1.50 crore on transporting drinking water to Nagulgidda mandal alone.

Mission Bhagiratha officials have sought Rs 7.60 crore to lay 145 km of new and alternative pipelines to provide drinking water from alternative sources. The government is also expected to spend Rs 12.22 crore on purchasing 370 new three-phase pump sets and 93 single-phase pump sets.

Meanwhile, the Mission Bhagiratha department has announced that drinking water will be supplied on alternate days across Sangareddy district after the Dasara festival owing to the shortage of water in Singur.